Recent research has examined the role played by patient and physician behaviors and cognitions in the delivery of health care. Health behavior research has examined behaviors relating to health, illness, 'sick-roles', care seeking, coping, prevention, and compliance with prescribed regimens. Cognitively-oriented research has sought to describe the contet and structure of lay knowledge and beliefs concerning health and self-assessment of health. This research has yielded some general cognitive health models. The proposed research seeks to extend and integrate the cognitive and behavioral research by using: (1) script theory and methods; and (2) multidimensional scaling (MDS) methods to describe the structure and content of disease cognitions and behaviors. The "script" studies examine the script contents and behavioral sequencing for selected diseases, while the multidimensional scaling studies use similarity ratings for diseases to construct disease models. The studies explore the development of these cognitions by comparing the scripts and MDS models of adolescents, undergraduates, patients, medical students, and physicians. To better pinpoint sources of patient-physician communication difficulties, subjects will generate ratings and scripts they believe to characterize their counterparts. The results of these studies will be used to formulate and test recommendations for improved patient-physician communication and develop diagnostic instruments to detect prospective communication and compliance problems.